MessyAcademy
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August news post #2
🕑 Added 2020-08-14 22:20:26 +0000 UTCCheck out our previous news post from the start of the month here!
This post will assume that you've read the first news post, but August has us working on update 0.14 which mainly features the side girls (Lola, Bridget and Zoey) route part 1's of 3 added. This will at least give every girl a starting point in their route stories for players to jump to from where the first half of the game ends on day 19.
From here forward, it'll be odd to figure out how we proceed with which content to focus on as there is content to still be seen between route parts for girls, but we have quite a bit to tackle for stuff still in the 2nd half of the game. So bare with us and ensure you vote on our polls later this month that will focus on asking everyone how we should proceed with new updates, if we should focus on purely one girl's content stuff for a month and move on to another most popular one and split things like that? Or maybe do a more even split focus of trying to say focus on Miki, Erika and Rachel for one month, the next month would do Heather, Juliet and Nova, etc.
Either way, we're trying to ensure we do things for new updates to offer enjoyable new content while also trying to ensure we keep things feeling solid. One thing we'd like to remind everyone is that we do plan on focusing some efforts in free time towards fixing up days 1-19 content and we have been collecting concerns for stuff related to this. Our goal with adjusting and fixing up our existing content and this goes for route part 1's already released, is that we will go back through and adjust everything to feel solid by the end goal of the game.
While we do want to make sure new content that is released feels good and doesn't suffer from major issues, one thing to note is that we are still heavy in development and that isn't to be a excuse for any rushed writing or content in that sense. It's just that sometimes when writing, even with a timeline of documents to remind myself of what's been going on. There's times where things seem fine from my point of view as the writing for say Nova's part 1 is all taken care of and then I receive concerns or feedback that the dinner date moment kind of feels rushed, which I can admit it does go by pretty quick.
But my major thing to address is that sometimes the writing will have some flaws in this sense, we'll keep notes and even adjust things later on to make sense and fix up some issues. But we're also trying to balance new content vs adjustments on existing content. My main thing with adjusting existing content is that I don't want to rush say fixing up days 1 & 2, if I have a week of time to adjust things for those days and it feels like I didn't have a set time to finish adjusting those days. Then I can try having them more or less about 90% polished and what should be the finished product, aside from maybe some grammar adjustments (these will be majorly tackled towards the end of the project professionally with QA hired help from many eyes)
Anyways, let's move into some stuff. First off Update 0.14 is targeted to release on September 4th and we're ahead of track for this so far.
(1) Update 0.14 content
Set to release on Sept 4th exactly at midnight (cst). We currently have Zoey & Lola route part 1's written up and ready to go so far. Bridget is all that remains and she has a early start on her writing as of today.
The main bulk of content for writing in this update is Zoey, Bridget and Lola's route part 1. It's been mentioned in their behind the scenes for writing, but the side girls have 3 route parts instead of 6 like the main girls. This is intended, we could possibly expand their routes to be longer in the future. But this will be based on demand from our fans and supporters, it isn't that we don't wish to give them proper stories or content. But we can't fully expect the same treatment for them as we would for main girls who are well... Main girls for the game.
With that said, the side girls will still have fitting stories in their shorter routes and should feel fulfilling. We won't see anything like cliffhangers or stuff to make players feel like their routes were cut short, if we do expand on their routes there would be stuff added in fitting areas for their stories to help tell their story better. An example of this is with Bridget where her part 1 will have a pretty decent recap of events to help explain what's taken place for her and set things up right off the bat. If her route were to be expanded, we'd be able to readjust her route and make things play out similar still to what we see, but have more time to properly show things that might've shown up from the recap instead of just explaining some stuff.
(moving on)
Aside from the bulk writing content above, below are some stuff we're looking at possibly seeing in this update also.
(A) - Days 1 & 2 readjusted, fixed up, etc. This would be to bring the writing quality up to speed with how our routes feel for writing. We aren't looking to completely change events or what happens in older content, but rather expand on things that makes sense or fix up dialogue to feel more natural, help explain the scenes better, etc. One example of this expanding is to go into more detail about the rules for the academy, helping set the idea of this up more clearly early on. But remember some finer details of rules are meant to be vague until later, but players should have a better sense of what enables punishments or give some better explaining of things.
(B) - Along with the above, as we adjust existing content we'll also add in diaper accidents for players in fitting spots and even moments for girls that are fitting for optional path accidents for them. An example of this is in day 1, the moment when you can tickle Miki or Erika. Tickling Erika causes her to wet herself, just as a small idea, but we'll see stuff like that spread out more in days 1-19 for extra optional accidents to be caused based on the player. Player accidents will be tied in with the mini game function that will be later added this year, where the player will feel the urge to use their diaper and have to control themselves not to have an accident in an embarrassing moment and hold it for a while longer. An example of how this would work is say during day 2 after meeting Nova, you have the urge to pee and if you wet yourself it affects the events going on. Offering some slight differences in gameplay.
(below is some extra content to mention)
(BG art) - We decided that we won't really need extra variants of bg's for stormy/rainy weather. We do have a day that takes place during a stormy day, but we'll be making an adjustment to this day at some point in the future. It's just that there won't be a major use of these variants to make it worth it in the long run sadly.
(CG art) - We will add the new cg art for the idol event that was supposed to be in update 0.12 but due to delays from the artist, it was just recently finished on August 9th. We're trying to figure out more details about how to handle cg related content as we're not quite sure what we can expect from our artist. The funding is there for 3+ scenes each month, but something doesn't seem to be adding up for their supply and added with their lack of communication, delays, etc. It's a rough situation where we understand everyone wants more cg art each update and we do too, but please bare with us as we try to figure out more details on this moving forward and we'll be 100% open with everyone on this subject in it's own dedicated posts. Thank you for understanding, in the mean time this scene mentioned will be in update 0.14 for now.
(OC characters) - We currently have one of three expected characters done so far, so right now we can expect one of these characters to possibly be added into a fitting area of the game, we might have two done this month or more. Our sprite artist is tackling this task as it's sprites of course, but they're pretty good about deadlines and getting things done within a set time.
(Music) - We currently have 8 tracks finished out of 12. We have 6 tracks paid for, but our goal is to have all the tracks paid off next month if all goes well with funding. We have no plans to add any new music in for update 0.14 sadly. Why hold off? Well I explained it in the last news post, but it's going to be quite a task to undertake to go through days 1-19+ and read through everything, trying to capture the right tone of the scenes taking place and match it with the music. We don't want to have to skip adding some music tracks in spots and then later repeat the same progress above to add extra tracks, as it's already going to be a hassle the first time around to put it nicely. But in update 0.15 expect to hear music added, we'll start with days 1 & 2 and move along in order to catch it up to where we're at currently in the game.
(What content can I expect that's major aside from the above and for the project this year?)
Aside from music being finished and added into the game, we might get sfx (sound effects) tackled and added. We will also try to get a good push on cg art, keeping in mind the above cg info mentioned, we have to figure some issues out first. But we want to get a good footing on cg art so that heading into 2021, we'll have a solid next year of major cg art being added. We might possibly be able to afford getting the mini game feature added to the game by the end of this year for the player accidents.
2020 has been a major leap in progress for MA, if you were to play through update 0.03 or 0.04 (I can't recall which one was the reboot). But the game has seen major progress since then with each passing month. I won't list everything in great detail, but gui added, sprites finished, bg art finished, music added/finished, etc. The game is roughly about half way finished on writing. We're still roughly on track for the game being finished by the end of 2021.
(2) Kickstarter launch news!
I have been trying to do public update posts for kickstarter once each week this month, so please do check those out instead as they're more up to date. I'll briefly mention some small news that's most up to date on this, but some of what I will mention is going to be heard again this weekend with another kickstarter focused news post.
As of right now we're delaying the kickstarter launch until our video trailer for the game is ready. We were just recently given another rough preview of the trailer to give us an idea of how things are looking and playing out. To keep it simple, there's some stuff that needed to be addressed still and fixed up.
Right now it's hard to tell what is seen as in progress vs what is intended to be there in the video provided to us. The video given sits at 6 minutes long right now, which is not what we want... For a trailer video we're looking for something that's roughly 2-3 minutes long with the finished product. 3 minutes for a trailer with visual novel games is long enough at times, so this is a big thing that needs addressed and fixed up on timing of things in the video.
Another thing is effects, polishing of animations seen. While it's not trying to be majorly flashy, it should still feel nice to look at as a trailer trying to pull people in. We'll have a more professional opening video/movie for the game seen by the end of this year meant to be seen in the game and also used for advertising in a sense. But this trailer is purely to help with the kickstarter and help in some ways for now, clearly not meant to be a in game finished/final product, as it's a early trailer.
-Conclusion-
So far things are looking good and on track for update 0.14 release date. I expect to have Bridget's route part 1 written up mostly this weekend while balancing personal relax time for myself, as I do work outside of the project. Just a matter of balancing work vs project work vs personal time for myself. But my hope is to have Bridget writing nearly done so that by early next week, I'll have the side girls route part 1 stuff done and aim to put them into the engine and get some preview screenshots of some moments to see coming up in the update.
It might seem like I have plenty of time to add more content this update given how far along I am right now. But a little behind the scenes... I went into this month working hard already to tackle and get Zoey and Lola writing done asap, that way I have more time the rest of this month to take it a little easy to make up for the hard push at the start of this month. That isn't to say I'm going to relax completely for possibly 2-3 weeks before the update releases.
I'll make use of this time to adjust existing content, some mentions below that I wish to tackle alongside days 1 & 2. But also keep in mind some of what is listed below is actually going to require more time, as it'll be more or less new content written, added to the engine, etc.
(Day 5) - Due to some concerns with ntr elements, we will be offering a simple skip option for players to the punishment act. The issue some people have still is that some people feel that John spanking a girl and causing them to mess their diaper falls under ntr elements still. Ntr is a beast of it's own and everyone seems to have their own personal opinions on what they consider ntr, we're trying our best to keep this kind of content optional outside of Lola or Bridget's content in their routes and when it shows up outside their routes, it's to hint towards avoiding their routes if people dislike it.
Cutting it short, we'll give a simple skip option for the punishment. Something where players can choose to stop John from punishing a girl completely and pretty much just skip the event altogether. We won't look into adding content to adjust for this, in the sense of say showing something fitting for those wishing to skip the event. It's just that there isn't much we can offer in it's place, we can't just force Brandon to be the one punishing a girl in John's place. It doesn't make sense in the context of what's going on and I know people dislike John loud and clear. This is noted and we're trying our best to please people of both sides.
(Day 18) - Small adjustment for Erika's section, we feel that the moment with Joey under the table in this moment is a bit too much. We're going to adjust this little bit and make it so it won't feel so bad for players, I have a good plan set for this to make it feel fitting for what takes place but not upset players.
(Day 17/18) - I'd like to add a small prelude moment between day 17 and 18's events. This is mainly to have Brandon get in touch with a girl to check in on them from day 17 either after doing something sexual with them or even just to see how they're feeling the morning after he helps get them safely back to their room for the night previous.
There's already a moment on day 19 that is unlocked if players did do something with a girl to address this, but it feels more fitting to have Brandon check in with the girl earlier on the next morning.
(Day 19) - This one falls in being major new content.
The idea is to overhaul day 19's confession moments, the major concern received is that it feels like Brandon and the characters forcibly confess their love for each other in such a short period of time as it's only been 3 weeks by this point. While feelings can be gained by this point, they come off as deeply in love and making it feel like they want to be together forever already.
So we're going to adjust that feeling so that they should come off feeling more fitting to their characters, Erika for example will say she loves Brandon. This is because she's got a long history with him growing up and has had feelings for such a long time for him. But then we'll see a different light for say Miki who might be a bit awkward, it'll be more like "Hey I like you Miki, I don't know if you feel the same but.." etc. More or less leading that they might share some sort of feelings in a much more realistic way, possibly looking to date each other and just see how things feel rather than coming off in a such a strong tone of loving each other instantly.
Now added with this there's the issue that they all take place on the rooftop and feel too samey. While game dev wise this is to help save time as 9 unique scenarios would take quite a good bit of time, but I think this is needed in some form. We shouldn't expect a major huge moment for how long and drawn out things are. But the goal is to adjust the confessions on day 19 so that we might possibly have Brandon go hang out with Erika in her dorm room, doing some fitting stuff and it leads to the question being brought up by Erika how he feels about her or trying to date one another. Compare this idea to say meeting with Miki on the rooftop to have her show you something interesting she found, her stuff would lead naturally towards maybe seeing Brandon bringing up how he thinks of Miki, wishing to maybe try dating with her, etc.
The main thing is it'd be overhauled to feel more realistic overall. But this won't end up making it in update 0.14 I can tell you that now as it's just too much to try fitting into this update with everything else sadly. Just know we're aware of this and it will be adjusted soon.
(Day 20?) - Not really day 20, but after day 19's confession.
Some people have brought up that the time skip of 6 weeks from day 19's confession to route part 1 feels like way too much time is skipped and that we miss out on so much.
While this isn't intended, we do have to keep this in mind. We can't have 3-6 weeks of content added between similar to days 1-19. While yes it would be awesome, heck I'd love for that myself. Game dev wise me would be crying on the inside from trying to do that, keep in mind days 1-19 is about 3 weeks of content in the game and that took us about give or take 6-8 months to create just the writing alone.
While I could make it so the writing isn't so long for days between 19 and route parts beginning, it would still be a lot of extra dev time for something that isn't meant to be seen as missing out majorly on stuff. I understand the moment of starting to date a girl and then instantly skipping ahead 6 weeks will make people think "What the hell? I didn't get to grow along aside them in the relationship!" But aside from a few moments that might feel like good progress seen, a lot of it would be filler content to put it nicely. It wouldn't really be part of their route story stuff going on and it would kind of feel like days 1-19 but with the thought of "Oh hey I'm dating Miki now." while doing a bunch of slice of life stuff between.
I get it though, the time skip is big and there's this void feeling left in it's place. We can try to expand a bit on seeing some stuff that takes place between this time skip for each girl, but it's also going to be seen as a lot of extra content that isn't trying to make players feel like they missed out on massive stuff in the relationship, etc.
To put it simply, we're looking to at least add a between random day that takes place about 3 weeks after the confession on day 19 and before route part 1 takes place. I know it's not a lot of content to give a major feeling of moving along side your girlfriend. But this will hopefully help give a sense of checking in on how things have progressed in 3 weeks time before it moves onto the route parts. It's something for now and we can possibly add to this in the future to help fill the gap of the time skip better.
An example of this is day 19 confession>week 1-2 day event>week 2-3 day event>week 4-5 day event>route part begins. Giving about 3 days of content focused on the girls to see what took place for major stuff between the events leading to the routes, we'll try our best to ensure the time skip and these days between feel fitting, without also suffering from their own time skip issues. We want to offer some fulfilling content and give a good sense of feeling like with these days between, you feel good with how things progressed into the route, rather than feeling like it's too rushed but also understanding we can't do a huge amount of content here either.
The point is that during the routes we'll see most of the relationship progress taking place and their personal stories, while actually getting some days between their route parts that help guide from one route part to the next, etc.
So for this we can't expect this in update 0.14, but we want at least 1 day between day 19 events and route part 1 stuff for now at some point soon. Then we'll look at adding another day to help with this.
(Route part 1 adjustments) - Mainly Nova, Juliet and Rachel.
We have some concerns with how stuff feels with these characters either for their sexual events seen or stuff that feels like it's too rushed for them. Nova for example we have heard concerns that her route part feels disconnected a bit too much, it takes place over 2 days on the weekend and we'll try to make this feel a bit less disconnected and the dinner date stuff feels rushed by too quickly. So we'll expand on that in a fitting way.
Nova's sexual event is a bit too much right away for her after looking at things, we will still see a fitting sexual event for her. It's just it's a little too far for what's going on for her right away in her first part.
Rachel mainly needs a little adjustment with her sexual act seen. Not too much adjustment, as we add the days between day 19 leading up to route parts, it'll help Rachel's petplay aspect and explain things better leading up to the sudden shock of it. But rest assured some adjustment to her scene is coming.
Juliet sadly suffers from having the same focus as Heather for their part 1, so there's not much to make them unique from each other. This is intended for their part 1 and with their part 2 we won't see such a crazy similar events for them. But they're heavy involved with each other, so keeping that in mind. We do want to look at some moments in Juliet's route part 1 to add some unique dialogue for her that feels fitting for what's going on without completely changing the events going on in the bulk of their story. Juliet's sexual scene will receive some adjusting as it feels a bit too sudden for her, but we'll see some adjusting like Rachel for this.
With that all out of the way... I know it's a long news post, but I hope everyone is doing okay this month so far and looking forward to the plans moving forward!
